RALEIGH – Ehren Siefers of Wilmington likes to purchase lottery games that have lots of top prizes remaining, which recently led him to a $100,000 instant win. Two weeks ago, he checked the N.C. Education Lottery website and saw that the Mega Bucks game had 10 $100,000 prizes left to be claimed, so he began a quest to purchase one of the elusive lucky tickets. Sunday morning while vacationing in Asheville, his persistence paid off as he scratched off a $100,000 Mega Bucks top prize.

“I thought it was a smart buy,” Siefers said. “I scratched the ticket in my hotel room and just stared at it. Then I jumped around and screamed for about ten minutes. This is the biggest thing to ever happen to me.”

Siefers, who works for a local Jeep dealership, said he has no immediate plans for his winnings, but may purchase a new car later on. He received a check for $68,001 after taxes were withheld. The winning ticket was purchased at the Citistop on Tunnel Road in Asheville.

As of Tuesday afternoon, nine more top prizes remain to be claimed in the Mega Bucks game.

A new feature on the N.C. Education Lottery’s website is the ability to see how many prizes are unclaimed in each instant scratch-off game. Players can click on the “Games” tab and then select “Instant Games” for a daily list of every current instant game and their remaining prizes. Go to www.nc-educationlottery.org for more information.

From March 30, 2006 through June 30, 2011, New Hanover County players won more than $72.2 million in prizes and local retailers earned more than $9.8 million in commissions on ticket sales.

During the same time frame, New Hanover County education programs received more than $32.6 million in lottery funds. By law, these funds benefit specific programs. More than $9.9 million paid for 202 teacher salaries in grades K-3; more than $8.9 million provided 2,331 prekindergarten opportunities for at-risk four year olds; and more than $3.2 million went to 2,899 need-based college scholarships. New Hanover County officials decided how to utilize more than $10.4 million in school construction funds provided by the lottery.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.1 billion for these initiatives statewide.